New Way To Waste Money

I just heard about a new assistant principal position-- DATA SPECIALIST.


In this day and age when there is so little money available for students, when classes and services are being cut left and right, where academic administrators are not being replaced, big money is being spent on a DATA SPECIALIST, a person who will sit in an office and sift through papers and numbers finding ways to make things come out in a way to benefit the school.

Mark Twain said, "There are lies, damn lies and then there are statistics."  I never thought I would see the day when education was replaced by these phony numbers and the people who supposedly care about kids are leading the way.

Tools

It is no surprise that kids graduating high school today are not ready for college.  But, when  Clara Hemphill of The New School's Insideschools.org. compares Bloomberg's new schools to the older ones, you've got to wonder what clueless imbeciles are actually working inside these schools today.

 "Those diplomas are probably not worth very much, but it's better than dropping out with a sixth-grade education, which is what was happening before."

There is no denying the drop out rate was higher years ago but there is also no denying that earning a high school diploma meant kids were ready to face the world, be it as a college student or a worker. A diploma meant the acquisition of skills needed for life.  It wasn't a gift.  What is the point of awarding a diploma without any worth? Even the drop outs of yesterday were better off than many of the graduates of today.  These kids learned that life wasn't a free ride and they had to work for what they wanted.  They couldn't get high end jobs but they could get jobs,  support themselves and their families and be productive members of society.  Now, these would be drop outs have the unearned piece of paper and believe life should be full of the same entitlements.

People like Hemphill are tools of the Bloomberg administration.  They are the ones destroying the youth of today and insuring a disastrous future for all.

Aesthetics

Aside from aesthetics, curbs don't serve that much of a purpose.  My neighborhood doesn't flood.

Why is the city spending $$$$ putting curbs in? 

In this fiscal crisis, couldn't the money be better spent? 

Is someone getting a big kickback?  Perhaps the owner of the construction contractor is owed a favor?

$8,000,000

Spending $8,000,000 on an Acuity test that will predict whether students will pass a regents exam is a ridiculous expense, especially when the city has no money and is threatening the layoff of thousands of teachers.  Especially ridiculous is the results of this exam.  Teachers can see the percentage of questions students got correct, but there is no information as to which questions they got wrong and need more work on, something a teacher's exam does all the time.  What's the point?  Acuity exams are just another project to line the pockets of the already rich at the expense of the students of NYC.

And The Big Companies Get Richer All The Time



I heard the tutoring companies are getting $4800 per kid for Title I programs!!!!  I really hope this is not true.  Please, someone, anyone, write and tell me I heard wrong.

For that kind of money each kid could be provided with a private teacher in their own homes.

What a crock of crap!!!

Hey Obama, if this is true, your Race To The Top stuff really stinks!!

And The Survey Says...



Just did my school survey. 

The money spent on this could have provided my students with the double period math they so desperately needed.   It could have provided for smaller classes.  It could have provided more tutoring.  (Title I tutoring is not for everyone.)  It could have provided for more deans. 

This money could have been used to plug the gap in the budget.

INSTEAD, THIS MONEY IS USED TO LINE THE POCKETS OF SOME RICH COMPUTER COMPANY. 

This is the fifth year of the study, the fifth year money has been tossed down the drain.  In five years nothing this survey has shown has improved schools.

Nobody Does It Better

When it comes to wasting money and time and then more money, no one does it better than the New York City Department of Education.  Now, if you happen to be a McGraw Hill stockholder, or a city bureaucrat with ties to that company, I am sure you are vehemently disagreeing with me.

Today was Acuity test day for the algebra classes.  The kids got to spend a period bubbling answers to questions most not only had no clue as to how to answer, but had no clue as to what the question was asking.  The test predominantly covered material they will be taught this term.  The good kids were frustrated.  I don't like being given questions I can't answer and they felt the same.  The not so good kids just bubbled anything and used the period as an excuse to do no work.

We gave Acuity tests to the same kids in June and we never saw those results.  They performed as they did today. 

I have been told that these tests are given so teachers can determine what their students know or do not know. I know that the kids don't know how to graph or how to recognize a parabola.  That work is in this year's curriculum.  They haven't been exposed to yet.  Besides, I am the teacher.  I evaluate what my students know or do not know on a daily basis.  McGraw Hill is being paid thousands of dollars to do what teachers do daily.  The big difference is they are not doing a very good job and teachers are not making the money the execs at this big company make.

Money is tight, budgets are stretched to the limit but McGraw Hill and its stockholders are still doing well.

Where is the accountability for all this wasted time and money? 

Bridge Anyone?

I heard that there will be three principals will be in one building this summer.

Too bad there won't be four.

How are they going to manage the bridge games now?

Wasting Money

Too much money is being spent on improving grades and getting kids to pass exams.

Too little money is being spent on improving education.

Data recovery programs are finding ingenious ways to give kids credit for "seat time."

We have data up the kazoo. A zillion dollars has been spent on ARIS so we can know that Billy, who is cutting our class this term, cut school last year as well, or that Julie, who couldn't read in eighth grade, still can't read, or why Judy, who has never failed, is all of a sudden failing math.

Classes sizes are still too large. Guidance counselors, attendance teachers and social workers have case loads that are enormous. Jimmy might finally pass the test but he still can't read.

Someone Had To Get A big Kickback On This One

This was in our latest memo:

The DOE NYC has invested millions of dollars in a company by the name of Acuity. The company has put together a predictor exam to be given in all ME22 classes. This exam will inform the teachers what specific areas students need help (his grammar, not mine). The teachers will be able to make up worksheets that stress the weaknesses of the students....This exam will contain problems that the company predicts will be on the Integrated Algebra Regents.

Wow, millions of dollars to do what we as teachers have been doing for a lot less than millions of dollars. Why would a mere classroom teacher be able to tell what their students need help in? Maybe the NYC DOE should spend a few more millions to supply us with these worksheets. Or. better yet, maybe the DOE should use these millions to provide smaller classes and curriculum suitable to the children taking the courses.

Millions of dollars? Just when I think I have seen it all, something else comes along.

I just googled Acuity. It is owned by...McGraw Hill. It has lots of "wonderful" ideas about teaching and testing. I cold describe the site, but a visit says it all.

So This Is Why We There Is No Money For Small Classes

(click to see a readable image)

This is what our school system is spending money on. Imagine, $115,000 a year to analyze data that will tell us what we already know.

From the Money section of Newsday 4/06/08

What A Racket

I walked past one of the offices this afternoon and found the F status person working hard. This was after she spent a period in the cafeteria socializing. Check out her picture on the left. (Not really her picture, she wasn't even pretending to work.)

F Status

Under the reign of Klein and Bloomberg Principals have control over how their budgeted money is to be spent. I know of one high school in the Bronx that is not using any of its money to hire subs when a teacher is out. All the kids are being sent to the auditorium and someone takes their attendance. I wonder what is going to happen with all the money that is being saved? Hopefully it will be put to some good use to benefit the students of that school.

One of the innovative things Principal's have found to do with their new money is to hire old, retired, Assistant Principals and favored teachers in an F status position. F status hires back retirees to fill positions that supposedly cannot be filled by teachers in the system. Mentoring is a common way this is filled. In my school a woman who just retired has returned to do just that. Although she is a brilliant woman and was an excellent teacher, her only teaching for the last five years or so involved teaching three advanced placement classes. How she is equipped to help a new teacher deal with classroom management issues I will never know. AP's, long retired, are also starting to reappear to fill these jobs. We even had an ESL teacher mentoring math and science.

So, for a recap of the state of our schools today--ATRs are filling the buildings but are not being allowed to have classes their own, teachers are being paid to teach a sixth class instead of hiring new teachers or giving the ATRs classes of their own and money is being given out to F status people to do jobs that most likely have nothing to do with the education of our children. I give Klein, Bloomberg and the Principals a big F for F status.